308 GRALLATORES. 



back in a line with the body, which serves for a rudder. They perch on 

 trees. They are of different colours ; whether these are only varieties 

 in colour I do not know. They have but one caecum. 



The British Bittern [Botaurus stellaris, Cuv.] . 



This bittern is of a mottled brown, some parts of the feathers being 

 of a lighter and others of a darker colour, which become more and 

 more distinct towards the back, where also the darker tints become 

 more predominant: the feathers of the belly are of a pretty regular 

 light brown. The feathers in general are long, few, and loose. 



A male had but one testicle, and that adhering to the fore-part of the 

 vena cava where the ovaria adhere in the female. The female parts 

 of generation are as usual. The legs are of a yellow-green, and the 

 skin is continued about an inch above the knee, without any feathers, 

 and of the same colour. The skin of the legs, toes, and soles of the 

 feet is much softer than in the common fowl. The claw of the middle 

 toe is serrated on the inner edge, and those serrae are pretty nearly at 

 right angles with, but a little pointed towards, the end of the claw, 

 very much like the teeth of a sickle. The flesh is pretty red and tender, 

 and has a good deal the smell of a roasted fowl. This bird grows ex- 

 tremely fat, so much so, indeed, as to have fat between the muscles ; 

 but it is principally subcutaneous, and on the abdominal region ; the fat 

 is very oily. 



There are four particular parts on the skin of this ' bird, one on the 

 outside of each thigh at the upper part, the other two on the breast ; 

 these are called ' gall-bags ;' they are of an oval figure, and seem to be 

 no more than a particular kind of feathers, which are about half an 

 inch long, and are little quills ending like hair-pencils ; so that they 

 are pretty soft and of a yellow colour at the roots or quills ; the other 

 part is white. When the skin is taken off at this part it seems to be 

 here much thicker, glandular, and fat, but it is not bitter to the taste 1 . 

 The eye is like that of a heron, with a bright yellow iris. The oeso- 

 phagus is very large, but there is no crop. The stomach is rather 

 stronger than that of a heron, and somewhat redder ; in it I found the 

 wings of beetles. The turns of the duodenum are as usual. The 

 other intestines are folded upon themselves for three or four times, and 

 then become loose. There is but one caecum, which is pretty thick. 

 Just before the small gut passes into the rectum it makes a turn upon 

 itself like the duodenum, which turn is pretty closely connected to the 

 posterior part of the stomach. The convolutions of the intestines are 



1 [Hunt. Preps. Phys. Series, Nos. 2007, 2008.] 



